Dark Musings

This was seventeen years ago, but the plot of the show was incredibly perceptive, both of the characters and society as a whole. And as it turns out – prophetic.

In this episode the four main characters of Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George are spending a few hours in a tiny town in Massachusetts. They witness a mugging from an opposite street corner. Instead of trying to stop it, they simply watch and make jokes because the victim is extremely overweight. In addition, Kramer starts to film the mugging with a camcorder. Then they simply turn and walk away from the scene, completely unconcerned with the fate of the victim.

I have to say that when I watched this episode, my feelings for the foursome changed drastically from like to dislike. I’ve never felt the same about the show since. I mean they were always self-absorbed, one and all, but good grief.

So in the finale (should I say spoiler alert for a show that aired 17 years ago??), the four of them are arrested for violating a “duty to rescue” law (which I don’t think actually exists because really, if it did, our jails would be overflowing even more than they are now) and the rest of the two-part show consists of clips from past episodes showing the utter lack of compassion and empathy that these four friends have shown to the people they’ve interacted with during the ten years of the Seinfeld series’ run. Spoiler alert (ha!). They were found guilty and the karma they had been racking up for the past nine seasons came back to bite them in the ass and they wound up in jail.

Fast forward to today.

There are people today who actually do this – witness a crime or a tragedy and not only do nothing about it but actually whip out their cellphones to record it! Or in the case of the recent fire in Dubai, take a selfie in front of said tragedy (before possibly being able to know if deaths are involved or not).

Go to YouTube and you’ll see thousands of videos like this. Someone getting beat up in a fast food restaurant or on a bus or something of that nature (usually in a big city) and instead of trying to stop it, a bystander films it and uploads it to YouTube. It would be one thing if they filmed it in order to help in the prosecution of the criminal involved, but I think their main reason to film it is to put it on YouTube or their Facebook account! Take this guy for example. He saw a car crash, and since helping is for suckers, he naturally just broke into the smashed up vehicle to record the two dying kids to post on his Facebook page instead and oh, hey, wait…maybe there’s some money to be made here… so according to police, he tried to peddle the recording to news stations.

Seinfeld had an uncanny knack for mirroring society right back at you through the t.v. screen, they just made it funny. In real life it’s not quite so amusing.

We wonder why some people, especially young people, have no empathy or why situations such as rape or bullying might get videotaped but not reported (or god forbid, stopped) as its taking place. I mean, it’s no exaggeration to say the first thought of the majority of the crowd is not, “let’s stop this,” but rather, “hey, did you get that!?” or “whoa, are you getting this!?” Of course meaning on one’s phone.

I think it’s because our society has created – and is constantly creating – voyeurs and people who are just completely immune to or simply don’t care about tragedy or violence, even when it’s right in front of them. There seems to be little respect for, well…anything anymore. People are taking playful selfies at Auschwitz these days for goodness sake. I hear it’s a “thing.”

I don’t know what the solution is. Stronger laws and more repercussions for heinous acts such as, oh, I don’t know, squeezing into a mangled car to film dying children up-close just to make a buck, would be a good start. It’s easy to say better parenting is the key, but is that it? Is that all it will take? Life is never that simple. As a society shouldn’t we do something? But really, are we even capable of pulling together as a group to create change? Or should we all just resign ourselves to the fact that the world is destined for that long trip waayy south in a hand basket when all is said and done?

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13 thoughts on “Dark Musings”

Sadly we as a society are desensitized to such an extreme level that when we see things we see it as entertainment. The fact that you are appalled by that kind of attitude shows that you have compassion and have a good spirit for those around you.

I read somewhere that if people are in a rush, they’re less inclined to stop and help. I guess if they have time, don’t wanna ‘help’, they whip out camera’s now. Like you say, that type of ‘helping’ action helps no one! Get in there and help like comic heroes! Like this 13 year old in the UK. It’ll restore some humanity for you! http://news.sky.com/story/1625278/teen-saves-children-after-hoverboard-explodes

I was very glad to read that story, thank you for sharing! There ARE some good stories out there. They just seem to be few and far between given the number of “bad” ones that seem to show up in the news. Wish more of the ones like about this child would show up!

It’s a tragedy. I would like to see such people experiencing similar situation: they’re dying and somebody makes a movie out of it. People do anything for fame and money recently. It’s awful, and all this selfie thing is awful, too. It’s actually pathetic.

I didn’t realize until now how prophetic that episode was. At the time, it seemed so far-fetched and ridiculous, but now in an era with cell-phone cameras and camcorders, we’re right in the thick of it.

I was just reading last night that people in general demonstrate a marked lack of empathy compared to previous generations. The argument is that social media is removing people from in-person, face-to-face relationships. We no longer see people as people, but only as a source of online content that we can “like.”

It’s hard to say. Technology has been changing so quickly. YouTube and the iPhone came out about 10 years ago, and it all still feels relatively new to me. I don’t know if there’s going to be a backlash as people yearn to live their lives offline, or if this indeed is the new reality.

I would have to agree that there is less empathy now than in the past, less of a feeling of community or connection to neighbors. I hope it’s not the new reality, but I don’t see how we can make it back or make it better.

I can’t comment on the prophetic qualities of “Seinfeld,” but I would note that when I was a kid we often heard lamenting about how people wouldn’t stop at an accident or pause to help anyone because they were just too busy, too self-involved. Today people do stop, but not to help, only to get a good picture or a selfie. Somehow I don’t think it’s an improvement.

I like to think that there are still plenty of people out there who do stop and do help, they just don’t make good front page news or “film at eleven!” unless they’re a movie star (i.e., Jamie Foxx this week). That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. (I know, it’s not just a river in Egypt…)

I would like to think if I was in an incident which involved a criminal, so like a mugging I probably would take a photo or a video before rescuing, just so I had a photo of the person. I say before rescuing, I would probably be filming while being brave and sending in my partner. In the case of an accident yes I would stop, if it was obvious but the way of the times, if a car has just broken down and I am alone or with my son then I probably would not do anything other than to inform the non emergency number

The difference with that is 1) you’re a good person, and 2) you’d be taking the video or photo to help capture the bad guys. Most of these people taking videos are doing so just so they can post it on social media to get amusement out of it and/or to get attention.